Should Google buy Yahoo?

Just weeks after rumors suggested that Microsoft was considering buying Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google might now bankroll a deal to buy the troubled internet portal. So far, Google has reportedly only discussed the possibility of funding two private-equity firms looking to buy Yahoo, and there's no guarantee the search giant will pursue a bid. Would this be a smart move, or would it only create more headaches for a company already plagued with anti-trust complaints?

Yahoo could open doors for Google: It's easy to understand why Google would want a piece of Yahoo, says Leslie Horn at PC Magazine. Google would be able to "sell ad space across Yahoo properties." And tapping into Yahoo's millions and millions of users would let Google open its "burgeoning social network, Google+, up to a wider audience." Plus, Google surely wouldn't mind having an instant relationship with Yahoo's content partners, such as ABC News.

"Will Google buy Yahoo?"

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Are you kidding? This would be a terrible move: Google has more reasons to run away than it does to embrace Yahoo, says Noah Davis at Business Insider. Anti-trust regulators blocked a web-search advertising partnership between these two internet giants in 2008 — they won't like this idea, either. Besides, Google is no content whiz, and putting Google in charge of Yahoo's growing media assets would be a "disaster." This may be an enticing rumor, but "don't bet it will happen."

"Now Google wants into the Yahoo-buying game"

And pairing up fails to solve the social media problem: A Google-Yahoo deal could "change the internet," says K. Sloan at Higher Visibility. But no matter how such a deal would play out — would Yahoo keep its identity or be "absorbed" by Google? — it won't solve either company's biggest problem: Social networking. Both have "struggled" to compete with Facebook and Twitter, and this deal would do little to improve their chances.

"What do you get when you mix Google and Yahoo?"